Despite all of the negative stories in the sports world, on Thanksgiving there are plenty of names and memories that fans can be thankful f0r …

Meb Keflezighi, a child immigrant from a village with no electricity in war-ravaged Eritrea where he was one of 11 siblings, who waved and proudly pointed to the USA on his shirt in the home stretch of the New York City Marathon, the first American man to win since 1982…

I would like to start by giving thanks to God for the many Blessings bestowed in my life. I reflect daily on my life as a young boy in Eritrea living with no electricity, and barely the necessities like food and water. These thoughts often come to my mind and I am reminded daily how blessed my family and I are to have the life we have today. There are so many people who have sowed seeds in my life and for those people I am so thankful!

We have to handle life’s highs with integrity and joy. We must also
understand that in life, things won’t be perfect every day, 365 days a year.
We must recognize and enjoy the positive things in life that are all around
us with the people around us, because we can never predict what the next
days, weeks, months, or years will bring.

Coming in to this year’s race I was ready. I mean REALLY ready for a marathon race. The only question that Coach Larsen and I had was:

photo by Jane Monti

Can I hold the peak fitness that I experienced in early and mid October for the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 1?

I knew I was ready to roll four weeks before the New York City Marathon. However, I tried to keep the momentum from the encouraging performance at the Rock ‘N Roll San Jose Half Marathon going for as long as possible. I just needed to keep healthy and do the minimum for the last three weeks because I knew I was fit.

Well, now that the race is over, we can say the training was right on.